17 May, 2011

Bridgestone BS-7/D Engine "Unfrozen"

After removing the piston last night, I had decided to soak the crankcase on the Bridgestone with a mix of ATF and Acetone. This seems to be an internet phenomenon when it comes to a cheap and extremely effective penetrating fluid. As it happens, the Bridgestone BS-7 engine lent itself to this treatment because the center portion of the case that the crank rides in seems to be completely sealed. There is even a tiny little drain plug bolt under the engine that drains just this chamber.

So I filled up this area with the ATF/Acetone mix and let it sit for about an hour. I intended to soak it overnight, but after an hour I went out just to see how much I could rotate the crank. Before the treatment, I got about 5-degrees of rotation by turning the cooling fan back and forth by hand. After an hour, I was able to get another degree or two each time I went back and forth. After a minutes I got about 45-degrees of rotation.

So I let it soak a bit longer, then was able to turn it over a full 360. I drained the old fluid, added fresh fluid, and rotate the crank over several times. After a couple minutes, it turns freely with a single finger's worth of "force" on the fan assembly. I snapped a few pictures.

Central galley where the crank rides:


Circumference of crank is very clean, with no signs of corrosion. The needle bearings on the big end were even shiny:


A bit more progress each day.

C'

3 comments:

sean said...

Cool, it's great you won't have to split the cases on that thing!

How did the brew fest go? Did you ever get your scores?

Chris said...

In fact we just got the score sheets in the mail yesterday. Pretty craptacular across the board.

My Pale Ale was pretty consistent around 28-29 I think, with three judges scoring it pretty close. Which is bizarre, because my neighbor loved it (last year's best of show winner.) However, his Pale Ale didn't trophy either!

My Amber averaged in the low 30s, but had a broad range of scores from a 29 to a 38. The 38 judge had kind words. The 29 judge din't really say much.

My cedar was NOT a hit. 20.5 was the score. I knew it would be a real hit or miss. The wood-aged beers that won had pretty much zip for wood flavor. More of a "hint of vanilla off the bourbon barrels" type flavor. They mostly wanted more body and alc, which I admit wasn't super strong at roughly 5%.

Overall, pretty average turnout for me. In fact, our club was very average. Those Oregon boys stole the show.

Bastards.

sean said...

Overall, pretty average turnout for me. In fact, our club was very average. Those Oregon boys stole the show.

Bastards.


Yeah, those Oregon brewers are real assholes.

Don't worry about the scores too much -- if you enjoy the beer, that's what's important. So they didn't fit the styles perfectly. Meh, oh well. There are always more contests, if you care.